Snowboards are somewhat similar to surfboards in appearance and riding style. They are used to ride on snow rather than surf. A snowboard has a tip or "shovel," a central contact zone, and a tail. The outer sides of boards capable of easily carving turns through the snow have sidecuts, giving the boards a slight hourglass configuration. The base of a snowboard is typically similar to that of snow skis, with steel edges circumscribing the outer shape of the base. A rider stands substantially sideways on the board with his feet skewed toward the shovel of the board. The rider applies pressure to the side of the board corresponding to the desired direction of turn. This causes the board to tilt into the snow on edge and the shovel and tail of the board to flex upwardly relative to the midrunning surface. The radius of curvature of the tilted edge (the "turning edge") causes the board to carve a turn.
Because of the wide running surface of snowboards, riders may have difficulty properly tilting a board on edge to carve a turn. To avoid toe or heel drag when turning on edge, the midsection width of the board is approximately equal to the length of the boots of a rider. The shovel and tail are somewhat wider. One approach to overcoming the difficulty in tilting the board to edge is using a narrower board and skewing the feet further to avoid toe or heel drag. However, this approach is limited by the rider's desire to have a substantially sideways stance. The average preferred foot angle from directly sideways is about 27 degrees.
One attempt to provide a narrower base to help a rider to more easily edge, while still avoiding toe or heel drag, is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,018,760 to Remondet. The Remondet snowboard has an upper portion substantially as wide as the rider's boots are long and a significantly narrower (110 mm narrower) lower portion projecting well below (7 to 8 mm below) the bottom surface of the upper portion. With this narrower running surface the rider can tilt the board to initiate a turn on the narrower base with less force. If the rider continues to tilt the board he can ride on both the inner and outer edges or on the outer edge only. The Remondet board, while being easier to tilt, suffers from snow accumulation between the upper and lower portions. This tends to make the board skid as edge control is lost, especially when tilting the board from an inner to an outer edge. The Remondet configuration also increases friction between the board and the snow surface due to the height of the sidewalls of the narrower base. Constructing a board in the configuration taught by Remondet results in a thick board that is too rigid to properly flex for carving. Also, the narrowness of the lower portion of the board and the resulting high angle between the upper and lower portions results in overtracking and makes the board unstable when landing after a jump.
Remondet also teaches that the outer configuration of the board is to be asymmetric for proper force application to the sidecuts, due to a skewed foot stance. However, the skewed upward curvature of the shovel creates a problem. When varying snow conditions, bumps, or depths are encountered, the skewed shovel tends to kick the front of the board in a toe-side direction, which is disconcerting to the rider because it upsets the rider's balance.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,580,078 issued to Vance, discloses a snowboard that overcomes many of the shortcomings and undesirable characteristics of the Remondet snowboard, as well as other prior art snowboards. The Vance snowboard represents a substantial advance in the area of snowboard technology. The double edge snowboard disclosed in the Vance patent ('078) contains a central running surface and left and right outer running surfaces, the central running surface being lower than the outer running surfaces of the board. Disposed between the central running surface and the outer running surfaces are left and right curved inner edges. Additionally, left and right curved outer edges surround a portion of the perimeter of the outer running surfaces. Both the inner and outer curved edges of the snowboard disclosed in the '078 patent are of various concave curvatures that form hourglass-shaped configurations. The outer curved edges of the '078 snowboard are generally symmetric about the longitudinal axis of the snowboard, whereas the inner curved edges are positioned in a number of different orientations, depending on the desired performance characteristics of the snowboard.
The inner curved edges of the snowboard disclosed in the '078 patent are concave parabolic arcs. Alterations of the snowboard's performance characteristic are achieved by (1) positioning the curved inner edges parallel with the curved outer edges, (2) positioning the front portions of the curved inner edges closer to the curved outer edges than the rear portions of the curved inner edges, (3) positioning the rear portions of the curved inner edges closer to the curved outer edges than the front portions of the curved inner edges, or (4) positioning the curved inner edges asymmetrically with respect to the curved outer edges and the longitudinal axis of the snowboard. These various curved inner edge configurations produce improved snowboard characteristics such as increased stability, better tracking, quicker turn initiation, and quicker turn-to-turn transitioning.
Even though the Vance snowboard disclosed in the '078 patent represents a significant advancement in snowboard technology, the '078 snowboard is still subject to further improvement. Specifically, the '078 patent, while providing many advantages for "all purpose" or "all terrain" type snowboards, does not address the particular needs and requirements of high-speed racing snowboards. Racing snowboards require specific configurations to be utilized that maximize capabilities such as high-speed directional stability, high-speed straight-line stability, and highspeed tracking, as well as having a high-speed low-drag base surface configuration. The hourglass-shaped, longitudinally curved inner edges disclosed in the Vance '078 patent, do not lend themselves to optimal racing configurations.
Because the growing popularity of snowboarding has led to the emergence of competitive snowboard racing, an increased need for snowboards that are specifically designed to meet the distinct requirements associated with high-speed racing has been created. That is, there is a continually growing need for racing specific snowboards that maximize racing advantageous characteristics. This invention is directed to providing such a snowboard.